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[ColonelTEE3]

I searched the wiki but i couldn't find much useful advice about my problem so im asking here.

I finally got rope reed to build a well for my fort, because up until that point, the fish in the river near my fort has cost the lives of 9 of my dwarves, bringing my population down by nearly a third.

Anywho, i built the well over 1 z level deep channel, connected the channel to the river, and, as some veterans of the new dwarf fortress may have expected, the well overflowed, and i had to triage the situation and quarantine the area, causing the deaths of two more dwarves and 4 or 5 animals before it flooded my housing department and dining room.

I cant figure out how to keep a constant amount of water below the well, without it overflowing. I thought if i had done the same thing, but with a controllable floodgate it might work? But that would mean the water would be disconnected from a main water source and dry up and id have to constantly be opening and closing the gate.

Can someone show me a more effective well design?

[slMagnvox]

I'm not a 0.27 vet, but I think a pump is a solution ..

From screw pump @ the DF Wiki: Pumps can not push water up additional Z-levels. That is, if you direct the output of a screw pump into a 1-square space surrounded by walls, the water will not "overflow" the walls.

If the well is on z level 2, level 1 would have a small resevoir fed by a pump and level 0 would be the source water being pumped from.  The well water would remain constant as fed by the pump and we'll both get to figure out how the hell to build a waterwheel to power the thing.

[Durnheist]

Another option is a pressure plate and floodgate(s).  You set the pressure plate to a certain water depth, and then the gate(s) open/close when the water reaches that depth on top of it.  This way you can create an intermittent flow of water that more or less matches evaporation and well use.

[Slappy Moose]

The simplest way to do it is to mine a corridor to a river, then make a room that uses a channel/staircase to go down a z-level, then put a well above that room via channel. That's what I do.

[GameHat]

You already identified the simplest solution in your main post: build a floodgate to regulate the flow in from the river.

If you are concerned about the well drying up, dig a large reservoir on your water level.  I'm not sure how much water is taken each time a dwarf drinks (1/7 level?) but with a reservoir of decent size you shouldn't have to refill your well more than once every couple of years.

[Default Settings]

I can't check it out right now, but I believe I have seen Dwarves being unhappy about "drinking stagnant water" or something like this when I closed the floodgate to my well.

My wells are between 4 and 8 levels deep, so if your wells are in danger of overflowing I suggest to build them on a higher level, if possible. My current well layout looks like this:

code:

Bottom level:
▒▒▒▒▒
▒777▒
77<7▒
▒777▒
▒▒▒▒▒
Level 1-3:
▒▒▒▒▒
▒_▒_▒
▒▒X▒▒
▒_▒_▒
▒▒▒▒▒
Level 4 (O = Well)
▒▒▒▒▒
▒O▒_▒
..X▒▒
▒_▒_▒
▒▒▒▒▒

This way I have wells on (up to) 4 different levels and can just wall up the stairway somewhere if I'm worried about something jumping out of the water.

[DJ]

If you need a reservoir below the water level, use pumps to get water in and out. Make a primary reservoir that's at the same level as your water source, and then use a pump to draw water from it one level up, and then let it flow down. Make a secondary reservoir where you need water, and make it at least two levels deep. Put two screw pumps on it's edge to pump the water out of it. As pumps can't reach the lower level of this reservoir, it'll always remain filled. Any overflow of this level will be sucked up by the pumps. Just continue using double pumps to bring this water back to the water source level and let it rejoin the source. I think this is perfectly flooding-proof as two pumps should be faster than one. Of course, all this takes a lot of power, so you may need to take the cheesy route and use perpetual motion waterwheels.

code:

      %%~-
~~~~~~--~--------- %%~~~~~~
--------~------ %%~--------
--------~-      -----------
--------~~~~~~~~-----------
---------------------------

Side view.
- rock
~ water
%% screw pump

[ November 25, 2007: Message edited by: DJ ]

[Poil]

Something like this perhaps?

side view

code:

~~~########
##~########
##~#####w..
##~%%~~~~##
##~########
###########

# wall
~ water
w well
. empty

Since, as noted by slMagnvox, pumps can't fill more than one z level this would be pretty failsafe. Use doors to allow your miner to escape after digging the shaft. Just don't forget to lock the doors and build a wall in front of them for good measure afterwards.